To the Editor:

My name is Mark Hutchins, and I’m running for the SAD 44 School Board. I am a Bethel native who attended K-12 Bethel area schools. My kindergarten teacher was Ethel Bisbee (and she was the kindergarten teacher for both of my parents as well), Lainey Cross’s mother was my first-grade teacher and the Crescent Park School cafeteria is named for my grandmother, Lillian Smith.

When I retired, I moved back to Bethel into the house my parents purchased in 1966 from my Uncle Dick Davis. Current School Board member Carol Olson Everett is a classmate of mine, as is Board Member Maggie Davis’s father. My roots and relatives in this area are many and the above barely scratches the surface. I think the message is: I’m local, I care deeply about this area and I want to help make a difference.

I also come to you with School Board credentials. I served on the School Board of the Merrimack Valley School District in Penacook, NH for 18 years, 7 of which as chair of that board. As with SAD 44, my NH school administrative unit had multiple towns (5), with another town tuitioning students into our high school.

The school board had 11 members for a district of approximately 2800 students, 500 staff and a 40+ million-dollar budget. While substantially larger than SAD 44, the issues for both are still very much the same.

I believe that the majority of residents in all SAD 44 towns want the best education for their children and grandchildren that can reasonably be afforded, while making sure that each town is treated fairly and that its money is well spent. It is always a balancing act to achieve these goals, but reasonable people generally arrive at reasonable solutions.

And this brings me to one of the primary reasons I am running for the School Board. Today, there is a divisiveness in this country that is unlike anything I have witnessed in my lifetime. While this “you/me, right/wrong” attitude affects many aspects of our daily lives, school boards in particular are facing pressures that are unprecedented.

In my experience, issues are sometimes complex. There are often credible arguments on both sides of the table, and the resolution of those differences most successfully occurs when all parties agree to a middle ground. I believe that the majority of people in our communities share this belief, and personally, I do not want a divisive minority making decisions for a reasonable majority. If you agree, please vote for me for the SAD 44 School Board on June 14.

Mark Hutchins

Bethel